Phase Forward and Veritas aim to increase efficiency in patient recruitment, by using Internet-enabled data management systems. The system should be an easy sell to pharma companies, as it tackles bottlenecks that can slow clinical trials and thus a drug's time to market.
Clinical and safety informatics solutions provider Phase Forward and Veritas Medicine, an online clinical trials resource, have formed an alliance. They plan to link electronic data capture (EDC) with online patient recruitment, to improve the efficiency of data collection and the management of clinical trials.
Phase Forward is already a strong player in electronic data capture, clinical data management, electronic patient diaries and adverse event reporting. This alliance will enable it to capitalize on Veritas' access to patients through the use of its website, which collects and reviews potential clinical trials patients.
The alliance was formed to address a major bottleneck in clinical trials: patient recruitment. The partners' technologies will improve electronic patient screening and recruitment for potential inclusion in clinical trials. Veritas will review eligibility for Phase Forward's managed clinical trials, and then use a Phase Forward server to notify qualified referrals securely. Clinical study sites will be able to access pre-screened data on patients.
As well as improving patient recruitment, the partnership aims to improve data and knowledge management. Because it uses Internet technology, access to patient files will be in real-time, which will help investigators (particularly if they are in remote trials sites) to communicate and share dynamic information.
Pharmaceutical companies will benefit from the combined system because it enables easy and transparent tracking of trial progress. R&D departments will be able to view how many patients have been screened as well as other reported data, which will help them to develop and monitor trial timelines and make adjustments accordingly.
Overall, this form of knowledge management is a good way to tackle the bottlenecks that exist in communicating, both among investigators and between investigators and sponsors.